Voting Process and Agenda

This page explains the processes that we follow when electing our Directors, and Officers.

Roles

Members
In order to be eligible to vote or to stand as a Director or an Officer, you must first become a Member of Transition Tynedale Ltd. Being a Member incurs a yearly subscription fee of £5.00. Registering as a member is easy. Simply email the following information to info@transitiontynedale.org:

Full Name

Email Address

Postal Address including

House Name/Number and Street

Postal Town

Postcode

Prior to the AGM, registration will start at 7.00 pm to be completed by 7.30 pm. Members registering at the time or by email should pay at the AGM registration the sum of £5.00 to establish the rights to vote by receiving a voting slip.

Directors
If you intend to become a Director of Transition Tynedale Ltd you should submit your intention by 6th March 2018. Please email your request to info@transitiontynedale.org. Please note that becoming a Director of Transition Tynedale incurs certain responsibilities. You may find the following documents useful background reading.

Officers
The following positions will be voted on following the election of Directors. The names in brackets indicate the incumbent officers:

Chair (Not currently filled)

Treasurer (Pat Turner)

Intent to stand for any of the positions listed above may be submitted by email to info@transitiontynedale.org before 6th March 2018, or on the day of the AGM prior to the actual election. If you wish to nominate someone on the night, please inform the Secretary (Pat Turner) who will take your details before 7.30pm.
The next Secretary will be appointed by the Directors at their first meeting.

AGM Agenda

The AGM will follow the following agenda:

Accept the minutes of last AGM 2016/2017

Approval of membership list by incumbent Directors

Directors Report Pat Turner

Financial Report Pat Turner

One third of the Directors shall stand down annually, for re-election if they so wish unless they have been a Director for 4 continuous years.

Chair and Treasurer to stand down.

The Secretary will facilitate the elections.

Election of additional Directors

Election of Officers from the Directors who have been elected

Any other business to be notified to the Secretary before the AGM.

Close of the AGM

Voting Procedure
Voting for Directors and Officers will follow the same initial procedure:
All Members will be given voting cards on registration and payment of £5.00. This is simply a way to differentiate members from non-members.
All Members will be asked to raise their voting cards prior to the vote to establish the number of eligible voters. All raised voting cards will be counted and recorded by the Secretary
Candidates for the election of Directors and Officers should stand up so they can be identified by the membership.
For each candidate the Membership will be asked to vote in favour of the candidate:
Members should raise their voting card to indicate affirmation of the candidate’s election
Members should keep their voting card lowered to indicate dissent or abstention of the candidate’s election.
All affirmative votes will be counted by the Secretary and recorded.

Election of Directors
Election as a Director will be confirmed by a majority vote by the members of more than 50%.
To be quorate the minimum number of Directors is 3; there is no maximum number of Directors under Transition Tynedale Ltd articles.
If there are less than 3 Directors then the candidates with the highest number of votes shall be appointed to make the total number of Directors quorate.

Election of Officers
Election as an Officer will be confirmed on the Director with the highest number of votes. Should any election of an officer result in a tie, the candidates will proceed to a further election by the Board of Directors at a later date.
The order of election of the officers shall be:

It is my belief and that of others that until we find love for the natural World we will not treat CC with the urgency it needs. We will not look for those “levers” which set us free.

Could Cob building be one such lever²?

For many starting out in life, a life choice may be to one day, own their own home. The cost of housing today in the UK is beyond the reach of many and supply does not meet demand. Rental costs for homes is also high and beyond the reach of many looking for their first home, especially in our major cities. The pressure to get that high paid job and take that long commute is hardest on our young people already saddled with student debt and having of a family of their own. Could a solution be to build a sustainable home, where the building material lies under our own feet? There remains the question of land being suitable and being made available for sustainable housing. Until we realise that we all have it in us to build our own home and all that we need is to unleash that innate ability, we are unlikely to organise and put the pressure required on Government to affect change to make that land available.

What is COB?

Rob Alcock:

“Cob is such an amazing material. It’s very simple—a mixture of clay, aggregate (sand), fibre (usually straw) and water”.

Fig 1 Treading cob ( cob dancing)

Resurgence of cob, dance party by Rob Alcock to compact the sub floor of his new “Snail cabin”

Next cob please!

Examples of cob buildings elsewhere

What might such a building look like?

Many people investigating cob may have come across the book “The Hand Sculptured House” by Ianto Evans, Michael Smith and Linda Smiley. Below is a picture of the “Heart House” showing the Passive solar front elevation. This was the first building that Ianto and Linda constructed.

What areas within the school curriculum overlap with sustainable building methods?

What do we need? Clay soil on site, the right climate, volunteers. An openness to making mistakes. Mistakes will be made along the way, we should not be afraid to make mistakes because experimentation is a natural part of learning.

Thomas Edison (January 1921 issue of American Magazine)

“After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something. For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldn’t be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way.”

There is a theatrical element of acting out each living space in the building which can then be translated into what space do we need to contain those aspects of living. The movements shows us how we weave together the individual spaces into a whole building.

Material science

Image from Ianto Evans.

Clay, sand, straw and rendering materials used in cob building are all natural. They come in all colours, and sizes. How we put these materials together, in layers, will affect the cobs compressibility, elasticity and rigidity. We need to know the cobs ability to withstand weight of the roof or upper floor, how cob walls breathe. We might want to retain heat inside the building and heat capacity and retention is a fascinating area of research. For example a trombe wall uses a combination of thermal mass with glazing to store the solar radiation.

Mathematics

Many years ago during an OU summer school, we were asked to make a mathematical model of the time and energy required to bring a kettle to the boil. I recall second order differential equations and we were still no closer. Similar considerations apply for cob. Here is a publication looking at the thermal properties of cob building.

Horticulture

The science and art of growing plants. In contrast to agriculture does not include large scale crop production. The environment surrounding the cob building and its roof, may well provide great synergy for horticulture and an opportunity to apply horticulturists knowledge.

Geography

The geography / geology issues raised when considering cob are many fold. We need to make the best use of the solar heat provided and we need to consider the drainage to keep the cob “foot” dry. We need access to soil which contains a source of clay and to consider constraints on lighting from surrounding trees. The likelihood of flooding and celestial orientation need investigation to consider sun light elevation.

Sociology

We have already described the need for students to understand the psychology of dissonance. With this understanding and that dissonance applies to each of us, the students can reframe the way they self justify their behaviour and work towards ways of reconciliation.

A self organising structure implied by the nature of cob building provides a fascinating insight into how we can best organise a work group and experience how effective and capable it is at delivering the final product.

Art

A cob building can be a thing of aesthetic beauty. There is the opportunity to sculpt, awaken the senses of touch and smell. Experience how we perceive and interpret unusual lighting on unfamiliar surfaces with earthen colour and texture. Being in a cob building can be a form of ecstasy. The thick walls reduce background noise levels opening up our senses to sounds which are often drowned out.

Mindfulness

Anyone considering mindfulness or other alternative therapy would find the experience of simply “being” within a cob building a useful environment in which to practice.

Building

Cob building is something that everyone can participate in. The safety aspects are greatly reduced. Each “cob” has a weight and softness that even small children can cope with. Conventional building sites have dangerous machinery in operation and many of the building products are toxic in nature. Cob building uses basic hand tools and natural materials. Even so, design and construction can offer new exciting and challenging opportunities for anyone anticipating going into building trades.

History

Cob and mud brick ( Adobe )homes have been used throughout the centuries, all over the world in construction of buildings such as the city of Shibam in the Yemen or the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali shown below. Perhaps an insight into the construction methods used in these building, their working history, can be gathered by making our own cob building?

How will working with cob as a school project benefit the children?

Cob can enrich our lives:

Cob construction work is dirty, squidgy, labour. It has a pace which can be harmonious with good living. All cob building is a form of experiment and learning and if the result is not what was supposed to be, cut back to where things were going to plan. The work is mainly outdoors but much preparation work can be done in the lab or school rooms currently used for that subject carrying out cob experimentation. Cob building can be “owned” by the people doing the work and from others who experience the process, it helps to give a sense of bonding to the environment local to that building. Cob building is a natural process using natural materials unlikely to cause harm and suits a wide age range who can be involved.

Cob can empower the young people to reframe their perception of the challenges their generation is facing:

Cob offers one of those “levers²” to help look at those challenges full on. Learning during building, provides space to look at other “levers” which help mitigate mans harmful effects on the Natural World.

Building cob confidence:

Experiencing the building grow, knowing yours are one of many pairs of hands working as a team to make this happen, surely can be good for any student. Taking that sense of ownership and having pride in playing your part in design, production and discovery, I suggest will be a welcome attribute to take with that student into their future work lifes.

A place to return to:

Perhaps during exam times or when feeling personal stress or when the students resilience is at a low edd, the cob building could be a retreat, a place of sanctuary to help rebuild that inner strength.

A place of reflection:

The building could be videoed or pictures taken which allow a historical reference for future expansion should that be though necessary. The history of the cob project could go with the student involved in that cob building as a reference and as a source of inspiration as they move into adulthood.

I propose a key to some of the answers to the problem set by Sir David can be found in psychology and in particular, Dissonance theory , as discussed in Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson’s book “Mistakes Were Made” details the workings of psychological blind spots. “It would seem that one of the minds cleverest tricks is to confer on us “we” don’t have a blind spot”. To understand why dissonance applies in the context set out above we first need to understand the term “learned helplessness”.

2..Learned Helplessness

Taken from “The Choice” by Edith Eger.

Pg 223 Edith a survivor of the holocaust, recalls work by one of her university mentors, Martin Seligan on dogs, which preceded protections on animal cruelty. The experiment answered a question for Edith which was that, since the liberation day at Gunskirchen Austria in May 1945, why did so many inmates wander out of the gates of the camp only to return to the muddy, festering barracks? Psychologically what was at work to make a liberated prisoner reject freedom?

Again taken from the book “Mistakes were made ( but not by me)” by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson Chapter 8, pg 232, they comment on the work by psychologists Harold Stevenson and James Stigler,

“who looked at the 5th grade maths gap between Asian and American school children in the 70’s. The up shot was American children fear making mistakes as they may reflect on their inherent abilities, whereas in Asian culture children are more able to experiment and take risks without such fear. Psychologist Carol Dweck furthered Stevenson and Stiglers work and went on to show that a self defeating cycle was set up. The ensuing dissonance ( I’m smart and yet I screwed up) led to the American student loosing interest in what they were studying. Would the cognitive ideas 1..I am smart 2..but I cannot find a solution to the problem also cause dissonance? Would the outcome be the same as for the maths, one of loosing interest in the problem? “

Land reform

A good place to start looking at the history of land ownership and how it has changed over the years may be the Wiki for “three acres and a cow”

]]>https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2018/02/06/a-holistic-view-on-cob-building/feed/0philcoulttreading cob.pngresurgence of cob dance partythrow a cob.pngHeart house passive solar.pngheart window.pngHeart Hs interior 2.pngCob Cottage co dawnCob Cottage coInside cob cottage 1Ianto and Michael.pngsnail cabin.pngDance the space.pngmaterial sciencegeographymosque.pngCycling Review for 2017https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/12/29/cycling-review-for-2017/
https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/12/29/cycling-review-for-2017/#commentsFri, 29 Dec 2017 15:25:25 +0000http://blog.transitiontynedale.org/?p=2316Continue reading →]]>In 2017 cycling continued to grow exponentially in popularity. In recognition of this and the need to reduce vehicle impact, the Government committed some funding to make cycling safer and increase participation but nowhere near enough to do the job properly. Children continue to want and receive bikes for Christmas but cycling to school is only possible in a minority of locations.

The increased uptake of e-bikes widened the appeal of cycling but the infrastructure in many cities, towns and villages largely failed to keep pace with demand and reasonable safety concerns for a variety of reasons including funding, political will, a vociferous motoring lobby and the decision-making power of non cyclists.

Mass participation events thrived and subject to the limited funding available, trail centres and bike parks increased in size, variation and popularity. Women’s cycling grew as a sport, as a hobby and as a means of transport whilst cycling for health reasons also expanded. Cycle tourism continued to grow in popularity despite low levels of investment due to continued political inertia.

After plateau-ing in the early decade years, mountain biking further resurged whilst cyclo-cross and cycling as part of triathlons continued to increased participation numbers. Cycling clubs abound in the North East and once again professional cycle racing made a huge impression on the region but sadly again left no legacy due to political apathy i.e. the total failure for those in power to see the potential that cycling brings.

The three main reasons people say they don’t cycle are traffic speed, volume and size. Where it’s useful, even modest changes to the highway like removing the centre line to slow down traffic and introducing advisory cycle lanes which cars straddle when the lanes are empty can make a huge difference whilst big changes such as constructing off-highway cycle lanes can significantly release latent demand for safer cycling.

The question is will cycling in 2018 be any different. The certainty is demand will only increase, the variable factor is funding for cycling is scarce but it does exist. The most worrying factor is the political will and energy to prioritise where, when and why available funding for cycling can be wisely spent has been sadly lacking.

Cyclists deserve a better implementation system that guarantees facilities for safer cycling where needed. What we don’t need is the removal of even modest facilities that make cycling safer for no other reason than to appease a minority of motorists.

Christmas ‘Get Together’ with Transition Tynedale… and all who fancy joining us for a drink.Wednesday 6th December
The back room
Heart of Northumberland
7:30pm
Tasty mince pies, warm mulled wine and good company!

]]>https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/tt-christmas-social-6th-december-2017/feed/0yantantetherchristmas-2017So why have Councillors in Corbridge celebrated removing much needed cycle laneshttps://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/so-why-have-councillors-in-corbridge-celebrated-removing-much-needed-cycle-lanes/
https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/so-why-have-councillors-in-corbridge-celebrated-removing-much-needed-cycle-lanes/#commentsTue, 14 Nov 2017 17:18:36 +0000http://blog.transitiontynedale.org/?p=2304Continue reading →]]>Sadly, there are influential people in Corbridge who successfully campaigned to have the remaining Advisory Cycle Lane on Newcastle Road east of Corbridge removed and the centre line reinstated to return the road to being vehicle dominant to the detriment of cyclists’ safety. And then boasted about it. The message this gives out from Corbridge is that the safety of vulnerable road users should not be considered over the convenience and habits of those local car drivers who don’t understand how cycle lanes work. At least the inconsiderate road-side parking close to Corbridge has been removed which put cyclists at extra risk and pushed eastbound vehicles into the centre of the road.

]]>https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/so-why-have-councillors-in-corbridge-celebrated-removing-much-needed-cycle-lanes/feed/1tedliddleMassive survey finds that 75% of Brits want protected cycleways builthttps://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/massive-survey-finds-that-75-of-brits-want-protected-cycleways-built/
https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/11/14/massive-survey-finds-that-75-of-brits-want-protected-cycleways-built/#respondTue, 14 Nov 2017 17:01:33 +0000http://blog.transitiontynedale.org/?p=2302Continue reading →]]>Most people living in seven British cities surveyed say cycling is a good thing and are far more supportive of bold and ambitious plans for cycling than decision-makers often think. They want dedicated space for people on bicycles even when this means taking space away from cars. Furthermore, People cycling in the seven cities take 111,564 cars off the road each day which if lined up, would equate to a 333 mile tailback – a distance greater than from Newcastle to Cardiff!

Recycle Week is organised by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). WRAP, a registered charity, works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy through helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.

Take a look at the WRAP website at http://www.wrap.org.uk/, where there’s lots of interesting and hopefully inspiring info on WRAP’s 3 priority areas: electronics and electricals; clothing and textiles; food and drink.

]]>https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/09/26/recycle-week-25th-sept-to-1st-oct/feed/0hexhamstuartEdible Hexham – prizewinners !https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/07/14/edible-hexham-prizewinners/
https://blog.transitiontynedale.org/2017/07/14/edible-hexham-prizewinners/#respondFri, 14 Jul 2017 19:58:45 +0000http://blog.transitiontynedale.org/?p=2235Continue reading →]]>On the 5th July four stalwart members of Edible Hexham travelled to Alnwick Gardens to learn they had been awarded first prize in the ‘Urban” category of the annual NCC competition ‘Love Northumberland”

Pictured receiving their certificate and award of 350 pounds from the Duchess of Alnwick are Elizabeth Leonard, Sue Hick, Rosemary Theobalds and Wendy Breach.

The awards are given every year to community groups and schools for their work in the environment in Northumberland and improving their local area and community.

The prize money will be put towards more herbs and veg for new planters in 2018 amd for extra signage.

Oue annual plant swop stall at the farmers market will this year be on May 13th. Bring any spare veg, or fruit seedlings or seeds to the stall to swop with something you don’t have. This is a good chance to try something knew or replace failed crops, you never know what you might find !

This year we are also asking for pollination plants for bees and other insects. If you have nothing to swop don’t worry – just give a donation !